Peripherals that use Thunderbolt, the high-speed interconnect developed by Intel and heartily embraced by Apple, have taken their sweet time coming to market. The options so far include a high-end professional RAID from Promise, an expensive portable RAID from LaCie, a pricey display from Apple, and a $50 cable necessary to connect them all. However, a number of companies in attendance at CES had some interesting products to show us, most of which will hit the market this year. Though Apple launched Thunderbolt in full force across most of its products in 2011, 2012 may finally see the standard gaining traction across the industry.

We got to see several products that have been announced but not yet released to the public, including Blackmagic's Intensity Shuttle video device, Belkin's long-promised Thunderbolt Express dock, and LaCie's 2Big Thunderbolt drives.

Blackmagic will have peripherals for mobile video professionals soon, including the Intensity Shuttle, which is set to ship by March.

Chris Foresman

Belkin's Thunderbolt Express dock in particular has been significantly redesigned from the initial concepts the company reveled at IDF last fall. It now features three USB 2.0 ports; FireWire 800, HDMI, 3.5mm audio, and gigabit Ethernet ports; and a downstream Thunderbolt port for daisy-chaining additional devices. The design also includes a cable pass through for a MagSafe power adapter, designed to make it easy to keep on a desk for docking portable Macs.

Belkin significantly redesigned its upcoming Thunderbolt Express Dock with more ports and a cleaner design. It won't be available until September 2012, however.

A hole in the front of the Thunderbolt Express Dock allows a MagSafe cable to pass through, making it easy to plug in a laptop and get the full desktop experience at home.

Chris Foresman

Unfortunately, Mac users looking for an alternative to Apple's $999 27" Thunderbolt Display will have to wait until September for the dock to ship. It will also cost $299—quite a bit more than we expected. Belkin representatives told Ars that existing docking solutions for MacBook users are similarly priced, but aren't nearly as elegant or easy to use. And, if you want to use a non-Apple display, it may be your only option. (For what it's worth, Belkin said that it is considering offering a less-expensive dock solution in the future.)

A few companies also announced new products set to debut in 2012. High-speed storage is still the most popular use for Thunderbolt, like Western Digital's large capacity MyBook Studio II drive with a Thunderbolt interface. The two-drive RAID will come in up to 6TB of capacity, though pricing and availability haven't been announced. Hitachi's G-Tech brand will also have a two-drive G-RAID available shortly as well.

Western Digital is readying a Thunderbolt version of its two-drive MyBook Studio RAID for later this year.

Chris Foresman

Western Digital had three drives daisy-chained for super fast performance.

Chris Foresman

Hitachi's G-Tech G-RAID packs two drives into a single enclosure.

Chris Foresman

Intel had a working sample of Elgato's new mobile Thunderbolt SSD drive, which is set to ship in February for $429.95 for 120GB capacity and $699.95 for 240GB. The drive is comparable in size to most mobile 2.5" drives, but its SSD internals are fast, silent, and resilient to bumps and drops. It's also self-powered by its single Thunderbolt port.

Elgato, most well-known for its TV and video-related products, introduced a mobile Thunderbolt SSD drive that ships in February.

Chris Foresman

OCZ has also announced its own SSD-based drive with a Thunderbolt interface called the Lightfoot. The incredibly thin, compact device is essentially a bare SSD board clad in a sleek aluminum shell. It will come in capacities of up to 1TB, and like the Elgato drive has just a single Thunderbolt port. Unfortunately, OCZ hasn't said anything about availability or pricing, but don't expect it to come cheap.

OCZ slipped a bare SSD board into a super thin aluminum enclosure to make its Lightfoot mobile drive.

Chris Foresman

Another view of the OCZ Lightfoot.

Chris Foresman

Compare the thickness of OCZ's drive (top) to Elgato's (bottom).

Chris Foresman

Seagate showed us Thunderbolt docks for its GoFlex line of adaptable mobile and desktop external drives. Company representatives told Ars that its GoFlex Thunderbolt Adapter for 2.5" mobile GoFlex drives should be available within the next couple months, and sells for $100. The GoFlex Desk Thunderbolt won't be available until the second half of the year, and will sell for about $200. One nice benefit of Segate's solution is that GoFlex users can immediately upgrade existing drives to Thunderbolt using the new adapters.

Seagate wil have Thunderbolt adapters for its 2.5" mobile GoFlex drives in the first quarter.

Chris Foresman

Seagate's GoFlex Desk with Thunderbolt won't be available until the second half of the year.

Chris Foresman

LaCie had another new Thunderbolt product it calls an eSATA Hub Thuderbolt Series. The somewhat large device has two Thunderbolt ports and two eSATA ports. This allows the adapter to be put anywhere in a Thunderbolt chain and connect up to two eSATA drives to a Thunderbolt-equipped computer. We think this may have limited utility, but if you're a working pro with eSATA drives as part of your desktop setup, the solution might be a perfect fit for connecting to a mobile workstation.

LaCie expects to release a hub that lets users connect up to two eSATA drives to a Thunderbolt chain.

Chris Foresman

We were also able to see a couple unannounced products being demoed in Intel's booth. The company had a working prototype of Lenovo's recently announced ThinkPad Edge S430 connected to multiple Thunderbolt drives and a heretofore unknown AOC 27" Thunderbolt display. Little is known about the AOC display, but we did find an Ethernet and audio port on the back. We didn't see any USB or other ports as Apple's Thunderbolt Display has.

AOC's 27" Thunderbolt display doesn't include a full dock, but we did spy an Ethernet port and a stereo mini-jack on the back.

Chris Foresman

The Lenovo S430, set to ship in the second quarter of 2012, was streaming five different video files, each from a different drive. Four of the video files were playing simultaneously on the AOC display while a fifth played on the S430's main display.

All the devices were connected using a non-Apple Thunderbolt cable, which we were told is manufactured by Sumitomo. The all-black cable wasn't branded, and Intel representatives couldn't tell us who might market the cables or what price they might sell for. However, we suspect the cables to come in below Apple's $50 asking price.

Users should have at least one alternative to Apple's $50 Thunderbolt cable coming soon. We have to admit we prefer this sleek all-black look to Apple's white and silver.

Chris Foresman

Intel had no word on when active optical cabling would be available, which would allow cable runs between devices to extend beyond 3m, but suggested we might hear more about that later this year.

Finally, we were able to suss out a few details about why Thunderbolt devices are taking so long to come to market. One vendor told Ars that supply of Thunderbolt controllers has been constrained somewhat as Apple was typically first in line to get them, with certain storage vendors then getting access, and others in line after that. We know that next-generation Thunderbolt controllers should be available around the second quarter of this year when Ivy Bridge launches, and that Intel plans an "official" launch of general Thunderbolt availability then.

We also heard that there are potential intellectual property issues associated with licensing Thunderbolt that has some vendors leery about Thunderbolt. We weren't able to learn what the specific issues are, but we heard similar complaints from another source last year shortly after Thunderbolt was unveiled by Apple and Intel. Hopefully those issues can be resolved; the vendors we spoke to are anxious to get their product ideas in the pipeline as they expect Thunderbolt adoption to grow significantly in the coming year.

Thunderbolt still appears to be hampered by the lack of a hub/switch. This means that you have a chain. With this type of connector (no latch), a chain of devices is a problem waiting to happen. When one connector starts to come out, all the downstream devices will just go away.

TB is dead. Between the time to market, crazy prices, and not enough of a differentiation from USB 3 it's unfortunately going down. Sometimes even Apple can't move the market and find a wider adopted and understood standard.

Thunderbolt still appears to be hampered by the lack of a hub/switch. This means that you have a chain. With this type of connector (no latch), a chain of devices is a problem waiting to happen. When one connector starts to come out, all the downstream devices will just go away.

This is NOT a technology I'll be paying for soon.

+1

Add in an expensive active cable -- probably at least $20 even in aftermarket, dependent largely on Intel/Apple patent royalties -- and it's not even on my horizon.

All you guys who can't think of anything you'd want to connect beyond an external hard disk will never understand TB's appeal, making the whining about price and so on superfluous.

Apple doesn't collect any licensing on TB. It's not their baby, it's Intel's, and you need TWO licensed chips per cable. So while prices will likely come down from $50, they ain't gonna be like $10 any time soon.

Well, as long as the next macbooks also have USB 3, then I don't really care how well TB does, since I'll be covered either way. I just don't want to get left behind buying a laptop I'll likely use for 5 years.

What the hell, Ars. By far the most interesting application is external GPU/PCIe and you don't even mention it at all? Who gives a shit about random hard drives, as plenty will correctly point out other interconnects can handle anything short of large multibay systems just fine. Being able to have an ultraportable system that can then become a powerful desktop with a single cable is far more of a unique and exciting application.

Worst coverage ever.

hobgoblin wrote:

GreenMeters wrote:

Any news on Thunderbolt-based eGPUs, similar to the Sony Vaio Z portable media dock? Particularly eGPUs that can provide accelerated graphics on the internal laptop monitors.

Not sure if the 1x PCIE has the bandwidth for that to be viable.

Um, more like 2.5x PCIe 2.0, and yes, it should be perfectly viable even without tricks like Nvidia's PCIe Compression tech. While it honestly was quite surprising to a ton of us, myself included, actual testing indicates that short of a large multi-monitor setup aimed at gaming bandwidth has a small to zero effect on performance in even high end titles. It will probably be more of an issue for something like OpenCL/CUDA computing, but even so it could still utterly slaughter any integrated solution or portable mobile chipset.

Thunderbolt still appears to be hampered by the lack of a hub/switch. This means that you have a chain. With this type of connector (no latch), a chain of devices is a problem waiting to happen. When one connector starts to come out, all the downstream devices will just go away.

This is NOT a technology I'll be paying for soon.

USB can do RAID? nopeUSB can do full def 1200v or more vdieo at 120Hz? nopeUSB can do committed writes and support NCQ for SATA? NopeUSB can USB can do full duplex? Nope (techically yes, but the USB3 Full duplex drivers require 8x the CPU load of the half duplex driver, and to hit 5gbps full duplex isn't even possible on top end i7 2nd gen, it peggs all 4 cores at 100% and still can;t hit full throughput).USB can do camera device control? nopeUSB can do realtime audio input and MIDI HiFi at multi-channel in 96kHz? nope.USB can connect external devices to the PCI bus? nope. No external GPUs on USB...

And this is a technology that will be shipped with every gen 3 intel CPU,thanks to the rediculously steep discounting intel is pushing on chipsets supporting those GPUs.

Chaining does suck, but it's far better than the performance drop of USB through a hub with multiple devices, and few people will have more than 2-3 TB devices that are considered normal to disconnect that won;t already be the last device in the chain. Also, many systems already have 2+ TB host ports, so a single chain is not the sole option.

Well, as long as the next macbooks also have USB 3, then I don't really care how well TB does, since I'll be covered either way. I just don't want to get left behind buying a laptop I'll likely use for 5 years.

Just check a list of the things USB3 ca;t do that TB Can.

Me personally, I'm looking hella forward to a single high end GPU in a chassis thaty I can connect to any PC or notebook on demand and get high end video, especailly being able to use my slim, long battrery laptop on the road and turn it into a desktop class gaming rig at home by plugging in, yet leaving that GPU hooked upo to my desktop doing rendering runs when I'm not home, so I only need to buy 1 GPU and a cheap laptop instead of a GPU for the desktop and a $2500 gaming portable.

USB 3 is almost 3 years old. Hoiw many USB 3 devices are really out there, other than some HDDs? Oh, right, NONE!

TB is almost 2 years behind, and has 10x the number of TYPES of devices available already. It's 2 main features being the ability to use external PCI cards on notebooks for added support of features that were not/can't be built internally (external GPUs mostly, but other card types for audio and future network support are key), and docking replicators that pass through multimonitor support (or even a single one at more than compressed 1080v resolution).

Heh, a micro-itx formfactor with thunderbolt would be sweet. Or even a addon card for my micro-atx based desktop.

As for IP issues. Was that not what basically sunk Firewire over time?

Nope, Firewire didn't get large scale support because the specification has higher demands on hardware vendors; USB basically requires and PCI slot with all of the work done by the CPU where as Firewire itself has dedicated hardware which jacks up the price (according to Wikipedia the cost is $1-2 per unit) then add on that all the cost cutting that USB vendors do that Firewire vendors can't (cable specifications is a lot more stringent when it comes to Firewire) and you get what you see today. IMHO Firewire is the better technology but the lack of willingness to push it in the market so that customers then turn around and start demanding it (then OEM's themselves start producing computers with Firewire 800 ports etc.) results in what we see today. Having used Firewire only just recently after purchasing a My Book Studio II the price difference is well worth paying given that the over all performance is mind blowing.

As for people whining about the price of Thunderbolt cables - if you want cheap crap then by all means keep purchasing cheap crap but by that choice you forfeit all rights to complain about anything related to computers until the moment you die. It is amazing how there are people here who think that magically you can have awesome results and there being no cost involved in delivering those awesome results. When ever I hear such people they remind me of the petulant spoilt child banging their fist on the table screaming, "I want, I want, I want!".

No, he meant Apple, although Fokker's post was still a piece of trashy flamebait. Clearly it takes many companies to help make a standard like this succeed. It's up to Intel to really drive things, to push forward in dropping chip prices, integrating and so forth. At the same time there is always a chicken/egg problem with these things, for without critical mass a self-driving cycle won't get going. Apple deserves credit for making a financial bet and adding the interface across the board even with nothing available for it specifically yet. That helps create a significant initial market and begin to drive chipset iteration and economies of scale. Third parties of course are critical in actually developing compelling equipment, and if no other OEMs jumped on board it wouldn't see full success either. It'd be wrong to dismiss how any of them contributed, even if Intel and Apple did a bit more on an absolute economic level (because at the same time they have more economic resources to work with too).

IMHO Firewire is the better technology but the lack of willingness to push it in the market so that customers then turn around and start demanding it (then OEM's themselves start producing computers with Firewire 800 ports etc.) results in what we see today. Having used Firewire only just recently after purchasing a My Book Studio II the price difference is well worth paying given that the over all performance is mind blowing.

There is more to it then that. Even though Firewire was superior to USB in terms of performance, it honestly didn't offer many really clear, compelling "killer apps". There were a few rarified ones (like audio work), but it wasn't an order of magnitude faster in raw speed and it was still, ultimately, "just another interconnect". Thunderbolt in contrast represents something a bit different: the standardized externalization of the internal system bus. That potentially opens up a lot more stuff that a simple interconnect just plain can't do at all (ie., anything that uses PCI). Particularly when combined with some of Intel's other ongoing improvements, such as dramatically wider CPU ranges, and coming at a time of ever increasing interest in mobility, it has significant potential. Naturally whether or not that potential gets realized will remain up in the air, but it has a story to tell that Firewire didn't in the Firewire/USB debate.

Me personally, I'm looking hella forward to a single high end GPU in a chassis thaty I can connect to any PC or notebook on demand and get high end video, especailly being able to use my slim, long battrery laptop on the road and turn it into a desktop class gaming rig at home by plugging in, yet leaving that GPU hooked upo to my desktop doing rendering runs when I'm not home, so I only need to buy 1 GPU and a cheap laptop instead of a GPU for the desktop and a $2500 gaming portable.

Jesus that would be awesome. That would justify the pricey cable in an instant.

What the hell, Ars. By far the most interesting application is external GPU/PCIe and you don't even mention it at all? Who gives a shit about random hard drives, as plenty will correctly point out other interconnects can handle anything short of large multibay systems just fine. Being able to have an ultraportable system that can then become a powerful desktop with a single cable is far more of a unique and exciting application.

Definitely this. The large RAID arrays would easily fully saturate a USB3 connection (at least if they're anything like the Promise one), and the SSDs would likely hit somewhere around USB3's peak real world performance... but it's the external GPU that's the real story here.

The GUS II is a bit disappointing in that it doesn't support a GPU that requires more than just the power that PCIe provides (75 watts, iirc?), although 75 watts would likely allow you to use a GPU that would crush most notebook solutions. Unless Ars is planning on having a dedicated article just for this thing, it seems like a major facepalm move to me.

Me personally, I'm looking hella forward to a single high end GPU in a chassis thaty I can connect to any PC or notebook on demand and get high end video, especailly being able to use my slim, long battrery laptop on the road and turn it into a desktop class gaming rig at home by plugging in, yet leaving that GPU hooked upo to my desktop doing rendering runs when I'm not home, so I only need to buy 1 GPU and a cheap laptop instead of a GPU for the desktop and a $2500 gaming portable.

Jesus that would be awesome. That would justify the pricey cable in an instant.

Hells yeah. My notebook has balls, but the GPU is a simple Intel HD. Works great even for basic video editing and games over 2 years old but the GPU isn't really game-worthy for modern titles.

zelannii wrote:

Accs wrote:

Yawn. The only thing I see that USB3 can't do is video.

Thunderbolt still appears to be hampered by the lack of a hub/switch. This means that you have a chain. With this type of connector (no latch), a chain of devices is a problem waiting to happen. When one connector starts to come out, all the downstream devices will just go away.

This is NOT a technology I'll be paying for soon.

USB can do RAID? nopeUSB can do full def 1200v or more vdieo at 120Hz? nopeUSB can do committed writes and support NCQ for SATA? NopeUSB can USB can do full duplex? Nope (techically yes, but the USB3 Full duplex drivers require 8x the CPU load of the half duplex driver, and to hit 5gbps full duplex isn't even possible on top end i7 2nd gen, it peggs all 4 cores at 100% and still can;t hit full throughput).USB can do camera device control? nopeUSB can do realtime audio input and MIDI HiFi at multi-channel in 96kHz? nope.USB can connect external devices to the PCI bus? nope. No external GPUs on USB...

And this is a technology that will be shipped with every gen 3 intel CPU,thanks to the rediculously steep discounting intel is pushing on chipsets supporting those GPUs.

Chaining does suck, but it's far better than the performance drop of USB through a hub with multiple devices, and few people will have more than 2-3 TB devices that are considered normal to disconnect that won;t already be the last device in the chain. Also, many systems already have 2+ TB host ports, so a single chain is not the sole option.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++Oh! Was that a whip crack I just heard?

The cool thing is, this isn't just a list of things that are cool but that mostly I won't use; on the contrary, I'll use MOST of them.

Think of this: You're nice, large, LED-backlit desktop 3-monitor display that you connect only when at home at your PC desk has a kick-ass GPU already connected (because of daisy chain!) and which is also connected to your awesome *external* 7.1 sound card system (also via daisy chain) and printer (via daisy chain - sensing a theme here?) all of which is connected to a desktop-mounted hub with various ports which is also GB Ethernet-connected directly to your router (why use wireless if you're gaming online and you don't have to?).

All of this and you come home, plug your laptop into the power cable and connect a SINGLE TB cable and it's all ready to go.

If you're a serious computer user (even if you only use an external drive for backup or external storage, RAID will be a serious improvement, as will your transfer speeds) and you can't see a use for TB it's because you're in denial.

The GUS II is a bit disappointing in that it doesn't support a GPU that requires more than just the power that PCIe provides (75 watts, iirc?), although 75 watts would likely allow you to use a GPU that would crush most notebook solutions. Unless Ars is planning on having a dedicated article just for this thing, it seems like a major facepalm move to me.

the GUS II supports up to 150W discrete cards (if you zoom in on the second picture on the anandtech page you can read that info for yourself, just in case you're wondering where this info came from).. i have no idea how good a discrete you can get under 150W, but I doubt it wouldn't wipe the floor with most (any?) of the mobile alternatives. plus, it would probably be upgradeable.

yup, I'm looking forward to this year in TB. i don't own any machines that support it nor can afford any of the peripherals being announced, but it gives me the nerd chills.

I don't see why USB 3 and thunderbolt can't exist together, with more portable devices like the macbook air opting to include only thunderbolt (with USB supported through a hub). I do hope Intel can get prices down significantly this year though.

I hope it works out (though I do hope that Monoprice can source some cables with a much better price point), as I can see the potential applications, particularly with external video card adapters... it's just a question of whether these potential products will ever actually materialize, as we've seen many high speed connection paradigms that ultimately failed to live up to their potential in the long run... Even the Apple blessing doesn't give me much confidence... after all, didn't they throw in with Firewire for a while there, and look where that ended up...

I'll be happy to be proven wrong on this, but I suspect the success of USB over all other takers thus far has been the relative cheapness of it compared to other solutions like eSATA or Firewire... At least Thunderbolt has the potential for unique applications that USB can't touch (like external display adapters), but we'll have to see if the market can provide those apps in sufficient quantity, and if users are willing to fork over the cash, before we can declare anything like success or failure... personally, I'm not hopeful, but will be happy to be proven wrong in a year if this does change everything...

I'll be happy to be proven wrong on this, but I suspect the success of USB over all other takers thus far has been the relative cheapness of it compared to other solutions like eSATA or Firewire...

I'm afraid you're right. Cheapness was critical for USB.

Remember USB started at a mere 12 Mbit/s.USB was a success because it was cheap enough even on very cheap devices, which in the past would have had a serial or parallel or PS/2 interface, and become ubiquitous.That was, after all, it's main reason of existence: remove the PS/2, serial and parallel ports.And that cheapness and ubiquity is still an important part of USB's success.

Doesn't mean there isn't a market for TB.TB's application range is even wider that FireWire was: more and more people use laptops as their main computer and TB gives them the option of coming home and connecting their laptop to some more serious kit with a single TB cable.

I'll be happy to be proven wrong on this, but I suspect the success of USB over all other takers thus far has been the relative cheapness of it compared to other solutions like eSATA or Firewire...

I'm afraid you're right. Cheapness was critical for USB.

Remember USB started at a mere 12 Mbit/s.USB was a success because it was cheap enough even on very cheap devices, which in the past would have had a serial or parallel or PS/2 interface, and become ubiquitous.That was, after all, it's main reason of existence: remove the PS/2, serial and parallel ports.And that cheapness and ubiquity is still an important part of USB's success.

I'd argue that the ubiquity was due to the cheapness... even more so now that people have cottoned to the idea that you don't have to pay $20+ dollars for a USB gold-plated cable at Best Buy when you can get the same quality for a tenth the price online through Amazon or Monoprice...

But yeah, it was always cheap to include USB as a feature in expansion cards and later motherboards, which caused system builders to snap them up. It was just fast enough, too, to obsolete the serial and parallel ports it was design to supplant, so it made perfect sense for it to be taken up...

I can see TB and USB coexisting, since I suspect that TB, due to licensing and patent issues, will always be expensive and probably won't get much cheaper than it is now, meaning it won't be used for EVERYTHING, but it does have enough potential in areas that USB can't touch, like external display adapters, that may cause it to at least have one or two ports on a PC for expansion purposes... and USB for the other dozen everyday devices that don't need that kind of speed, like keyboard/mouse, printers, external single drives, etc...

I don't see why USB 3 and thunderbolt can't exist together, with more portable devices like the macbook air opting to include only thunderbolt (with USB supported through a hub). I do hope Intel can get prices down significantly this year though.

The Macbook Air has two USB ports on it... Unless you meant USB 3, in which case it indeed doesn't have any (Ivy Bridge fresh likely will, though).

Well actually apple killed the whole idea behind it (displayport type connector...). It was Sony that got it right this time. A USB3 compatible port with thunderbolt. Considering thunderbolt is protocol agnostic, full usb3 could run over the port, and other thunderbolt connectors worked too. It's dock implementation showed the real power of it. It would have been the perfect way to seamlessly change from the bronze-age type universal connector to the future optical (via active cabelling) one.

On a side note these active cables are what's gonna byte them in the back. If they transfer to metal-optic active cabels: you'll have to buy new ones, if they transfer to internally optical connectors: you'll have to buy new ones. Not only will you have to buy new ones that are passively optical: a consumer will also have to have half passive/half active to be able to still connect to peripherals with metal ports... Currently it's a mess going nowhere, at it's current pricepoint that is a no-go.

The route they are taking currently is incompatible with current peripherals (no problem with that if it had been lightpeak from the get go), but it will need a new switch in 5-10 years when they want to switch to full optical connectors. So you the universal connector is still not out there. Good luck intel, you blew it twice. And apple, thank you for screwing everyone over. AMD is right at the moment, the current solutions suffice and when a clean break to the optical world presents itself, it will be time to switch to the one and only connector (which this solution does not bring)

If Thunderbolt means we finally see the end of the plethora of connection types, and we can get all connections over TB, then I'm all for it. I'm sick of the ridiculous amount of cables for every little thing. All consumer electronics should be just TB and/or Wifi, nothing else.

The GUS II is a bit disappointing in that it doesn't support a GPU that requires more than just the power that PCIe provides (75 watts, iirc?), although 75 watts would likely allow you to use a GPU that would crush most notebook solutions. Unless Ars is planning on having a dedicated article just for this thing, it seems like a major facepalm move to me.

the GUS II supports up to 150W discrete cards (if you zoom in on the second picture on the anandtech page you can read that info for yourself, just in case you're wondering where this info came from).. i have no idea how good a discrete you can get under 150W, but I doubt it wouldn't wipe the floor with most (any?) of the mobile alternatives. plus, it would probably be upgradeable.

yup, I'm looking forward to this year in TB. i don't own any machines that support it nor can afford any of the peripherals being announced, but it gives me the nerd chills.

AMD7970 is peaking about 180watts at the outlet. Assume power losses from PSU/etc, probably only pulling ~170watts. I'm sure a next gen card with 150watt ceiling can be quite powerful.

Me personally, I'm looking hella forward to a single high end GPU in a chassis thaty I can connect to any PC or notebook on demand and get high end video, especailly being able to use my slim, long battrery laptop on the road and turn it into a desktop class gaming rig at home by plugging in, yet leaving that GPU hooked upo to my desktop doing rendering runs when I'm not home, so I only need to buy 1 GPU and a cheap laptop instead of a GPU for the desktop and a $2500 gaming portable.

Jesus that would be awesome. That would justify the pricey cable in an instant.

Want x 1,000.

My "game machine" would then become a huge TB "Steam" drive, a nice big TB screen, and a TB GPU.